Black Sabbath Legend Tony Iommi, 77, Unsure How ‘Nerve-Wracking' Final Show Will Go
In an interview with Music Week, the legendary Black Sabbath guitarist said the historic Back to the Beginning concert will be 'a big monumental thing' if it all works out. He also explained that the band, which formed in 1968, only agreed to perform the concert because it would be a charity show.
"The worrying thing for me is the unknown,' Iommi said in the interview, per Louder. 'We don't know what's going to happen. Normally, when we'd tour, we'd rehearse and run through the thing for a while, and it's just us. But with this event, there are so many other moving parts."
'You're used to Ozzy running around, but he certainly won't be doing that for this show," Iommi said of Osbourne's Parkinson's disease diagnosis. "I don't know if he's going to be standing or sitting on a throne or what.'
While he vowed that the Back to the Beginning show is "absolutely the end" for Black Sabbath, Iommi added, 'Everybody in the band is looking forward to doing it, though it's a nerve-wracking thing, as we'll be touching on some stuff that we haven't done for a long time."
Iommi and Osbourne, 76, will reunite with fellow Black Sabbath legends Geezer Butler and Bill Ward for the first time in 20 years for the Back to the Beginning show on July 5. The farewell show will take place at Birmingham's Villa Park and will be live-streamed across the globe.
Like Iommi, Butler has admitted he's nervous about the Back to the Beginning concert. 'I'm already having palpitations,' the Black Sabbath bassist told The Guardian in May, noting that he had a 'nightmare' about the concert going wrong.
Osbourne has also expressed concern about how he will get through the show. During an episode of the Ozzy's Boneyard SiriusXM show Ozzy Speaks, the 'Iron Man' singer vowed that he would give 'everything [he's] got' for the final concert.
'By hook or by crook, I am going to make this f---ing gig if it is the last thing I do,' Osbourne said. 'Well, it will be,' he added. 'But all I can say is I'm giving 120 percent.'Black Sabbath Legend Tony Iommi, 77, Unsure How 'Nerve-Wracking' Final Show Will Go first appeared on Men's Journal on Jun 14, 2025
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